Stargate: Return of the Ancients, Season 1, Ep 15
by Aer-ki Jyr
Summary: Episode, "Alba Longa"
1. Chapter 1

"Sensor sweep," Davra ordered as the Traveler ship exited hyperspace. "Let's make sure we're alone."

"All clear, Captain," the navigator reported a moment later.

"Very well. Proceed with surface scans," he said, leaning back in his chair.

"Preliminaries show breathable atmosphere and temperate to tropical climate. Two percent axial tilt…which means no seasons to speak of. Little to no surface topography, 30% of this hemisphere is covered by surface water…the rest has dense vegetation, no signs of technology."

"Patience, Keeva. Let's see what the other side holds before we jump to any conclusions."

"Davra, this is only the second truly habitable world any of us have found outside the gate network. Don't you think that's worth getting at least a little excited about?"

"First things first," the Captain insisted. "Take us through a quick trip around orbit before we start the regional scans."

"Fine with me," she said, accelerating the ship into a tight, low orbit for maximum speed, "but I still say we've found a gem. There's not a lick of ice down there."

Davra didn't say anything more. He simply watched the crescent of new surface features creep across the horizon. Suddenly small ridges started to appear…nothing too large, but given the lack of any other identifiable elevation on the world these stood out to the naked eye and the computer which was updating a spherical hologram as they progressed.

The more Davra saw, the more a knot started to form in his gut. Something about these ridges didn't sit right with him, and he had a sneaking suspicion that this 'gem' of a world might turn out to be another disappointment like their last. Three weeks ago they'd found a small, grass covered world of moderate temperature that appeared to be habitable from orbit. When they'd gotten around to landing their surface probes they quickly discovered the 'surface' wasn't quite solid.

The entire planet was a massive bog, and while technically habitable it wasn't what they'd been hoping for. They'd completed their analysis in depth and added the survey to the catalog of non-gated worlds for Atlantis. Perhaps Stevenson could find a use for 'bog-land,' but without a livable surface or any useful geological deposits, what that use might be was beyond Davra. They'd made the mistake of reporting it in early, before they'd completed their full survey, and this time he wasn't about to jump the gun.

The ridges, now covering a spherical area of about 100 million square kilometers, ended as suddenly as they began and the smooth surface features of the planet reappeared. The rest of the hemisphere appeared as its twin, but something about that cluster of ridges didn't sit right with Davra.

"Change course," he ordered in a whisper. "Bring us back over those surface features. Use the deep scan system Stevenson gave us. Let's see what's beneath the surface."

"Changing course," Keeva said without complaint. She was curious too, despite her enthusiasm. When she activated the specialized sensors she got a weird look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Davra asked.

"Our scans are being scattered. All I've got is a grainy image, but there appears to be a network of structures beneath the surface…a lot of structures."

"Natural or artificial?"

Keeva shifted the sensor readings to the holoprojector...another gift from Stevenson.

The angular and often grid-like pattern of subsurface chambers and connecting tunnels put to rest any doubt of the structures' natural formation.

"Captain we have incoming!" Keeva half shouted. "Numerous objects rising on an intercept course from the surface."

"We've seen enough for now," Davra said evenly. "Break orbit."

The Traveler ship accelerated upwards quickly, but the smaller ships coming from the surface were gaining on them.

"Captain?"

"I see 'em," he said as two larger contacts emerged from hyperspace in front of them. "Make ready to jump to hyperspace."

The fighters rising from the surface began firing green energy weapons at the Travelers' engines while even more fighters poured out of the two capital ships.

"We can't take much of this!" Keeva yelled as she flew an evasive course and the Captain returned fire with the ships' weapons. The shields were now taking small hits from the fighters, a few every second. One of the oddly shaped craft exploded under the impact of the Travelers' weaponry as four more large ships emerged out of hyperspace in front of their new trajectory…they too deployed fighters."

"I think they want their home kept a secret," Davra said, concern evident in his voice. "Get us clear now or _we_ won't be going home!"

"I'm trying," she said, tipping the ship over and heading back down to the planet at full thrust. A loud bang sounded from behind and the ship slew to port.

"Shields breached," Davra yelled.

"Hang on," Keeva said as they passed through the last of the fighters that had been trailing them. She managed to get a hyperspace window formed in front of them just above the atmosphere. The Traveler ship dove into it like a bullet fired into a pool of water.

Keeva breathed heavily. "That was too close," she said as the proximity sensors pinged an alarm.

"We're being followed," Davra said just before a ship-wide alarm sounded.

"Intruder alert!" Keeva said unnecessarily.

Davra punched a few buttons. "Engineering level," he said, pulling out his sidearm. "Stay on the bridge and keep us ahead of them. Send a distress signal while you're at it."

"I'm on it," she said, turning back to her station as the Captain went aft.

When he neared the engineering level he heard sounds of fighting ahead. Several Traveler weapons could be heard firing, as well as several large bangs, but he couldn't discern any alien weapons fire. He'd assumed that when their shields had gone down the enemy had managed to get something aboard…and they had to kill whatever it was before it took over or disabled the ship. If they dropped out of hyperdrive now they were as good as dead.

Two seconds down Davra came to the penetration point in the hull and his jaw dropped. How the thing hadn't purged their atmosphere he couldn't say, but one of the alien fighters had rammed into their hull and the clearly exposed cockpit told him that his crew was fighting the pilot.

He gave the fighter one last look, then took a step aft when he caught a glance of something out of the corner of his eye. Davra stepped backward and confirmed his glance. There was a thin layer of goo in the seam between the fighter and his damaged ship. Whoever these people were, they'd designed their fighters to do this…it hadn't been an accident or a last ditch maneuver.

Davra shook his head and ran aft.

When he emerged in the engine room he found six of his crew dead, with another fourteen injured. Twenty more crowed the area, save for a small section of floorspace that held the bodies of three aliens with grayish skin and visible cybernetic implants in their skulls. The armor that they wore had multiple blast marks…apparently the things had gone down hard.

Suddenly they felt the ship drop out of hyperspace.

"Haverson, what's wrong?" he asked the second engineer. The first lay dead a few meters away.

The young boy looked around for a few seconds, checking equipment, then turned back to the captain and shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing, Captain. The engines are fine."

"They're not fine," Davra argued, pushing his way through the crowd as a bang sounded on the port side. "Check the ship," he ordered everyone. "There may be more intruders."

"Captain," the boy said after running a quick diagnostic. A second bang sounded from the starboard side. "The hyperdrive disengaged because of a direct command from the helm station."

Davra raced back up to the bridge. If the aliens had simply disengaged the engines then maybe he could kill them and jump the ship back into safety…it also meant that Keeva was probably dead too.

A few minutes later he burst back onto bridge, pistol leading, and stopped dead in his tracks. Keeva was still in the pilot's seat…and flying the ship through an enormous asteroid field.

"You are absolutely crazy," he said, retaking his seat. He was glad that she was still alive.

"If you have a better idea…" she said, pulling the ship hard to port. A small thump sounded on their right side.

"Why aren't the shields up?"

"I need the engine power. They're still behind us. Feel free to take the guns again."

"I don't believe this," he said, pulling up the targeting program for the aft firing arc. Sure enough there were several fighters weaving through the field after them…

"Like hell they are," he said, firing a few shots. They missed the much smaller fighters, but caused one of them to go evasive…right into one of the floating rocks.

Davra expected some snide comment about his targeting ability from Keeva, but she was totally preoccupied with keeping _them_ off the rocks.

* * *

"Commander Dex?"

Ronon was in mid swing when Corporal Jorson spoke behind him, but he didn't falter. He completed his uppercut, followed by two quick jabs, then a headlock which he reversed and flung his opponent head over heels into the training mat. He released the new recruit and helped him to his feet.

"You're fast, but your brain can't keep up with your body. Stop trying to think ahead and learn to react. You have to feel your leverage and work on one grip point, one moment at a time, one moment flowing into another hold, punch, or block and continuing on to the next. If you can learn to do that even _I _will have trouble taking you down."

The thin man nodded respectfully. "Feel, don't think ahead," he repeated.

Ronon slapped him on the shoulder then turned around to lock eyes with the Corporal. "More recruits?" he guessed.

"Yes and no," Jorson said. "A new group came in a couple hours ago, but one of them says he knows you…and he has combat experience with the Wraith. He claims he was a…'runner.'

Ronon's look grew even more serious than usual. "Take me to him."

"Yes, sir," Jorson said reflexively as he led his commander back to the newly constructed set of barracks. They'd been recruiting so many Pegasus natives that they'd had to expand their infrastructure three times over the past year. All together, Yavin now fielded a green army of 1,500 'regulars' that had passed Ronon's minimum standards to go offworld on missions, but the training center fielded another 25,000 recruits…all of which now fell under Ronon's direct command.

Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, and even Brand had all gradually moved on to other assignments, due in part to Ronon's undisputable success with his original 'green team.' Ronon hadn't hesitated to take the reins…and the army that he was building had started to feel more and more like home. None of these recruits were Setidans, nor were they up to their caliber, but the core group was no longer a disparate group of mill workers and field hands…they were soldiers. Not the best, or the brightest, but they had heart, as much so as his fellow Setidans in some cases. These men and woman had suffered for generations under the oppression of the Wraith. They knew the stakes…and finding the motivation to endure Ronon's tough and sometimes cruel training had never been a concern.

Ronon Dex was proud of what they'd accomplished, but he wasn't satisfied. He was a Setidan and these were his men. He wasn't going to be comfortable fighting alongside them until they'd reached Setidan standards…and he wasn't going to let them rest until they had.

The Corporal led Ronon into the second level of the 27th barracks where a Sergeant Ketts had a group of three dozen men and four women seated in rows as he gave them basic instructions in a very loud and clear voice. He stopped the moment he saw Ronon and saluted with a fist to his shoulder.

Ronon waved away the gesture as he looked over the newcomers. As he did one man in the back stood up silently. Their eyes locked for several long seconds.

"You," Ronon said in a harsh whisper.

The man smirked without any trace of humor. "I heard you were recruiting to fight the Wraith. Figured you could use my help."

Ronon walked forward, the others scampering out of his way, until he stood directly in front of the man. "You don't belong here."

The man stiffened. "If that's the way you want it, then I'll leave."

Ronon shook his head humorously. "No, you won't."

The man stepped a few inches closer to Ronon. "Who's going to stop me?"

They stared at each other for a moment, then Ronon finally broke the silence. "Sergeant."

"Yes, Commander?" he asked, stepping to his side, but keeping his distance from the other man.

"Have this man transferred to 1st barracks and the elite training group. He's no rookie."

The Sergeant hesitated for the briefest of moments, then caught his drift. "Immediately, Commander" he said, motioning to one of his lower ranking staff.

The slightly shorter man raised an eyebrow as the two still hadn't broken eye contact. "Well, that went better than expected."

Ronon finally broke into a smile and extended his hand.

Kiryk took it in a firm grip. "Quite a place you've got here."

"Growing by the day," Ronon said, noticing his armband was gone. "What happened to your gadget?"

"Permanently broke a while back. Sold the pieces to buy food and gear."

"Well, those days are over. The Ancestors are supplying us with everything we need now."

"So I'd heard…but I didn't believe the rumors."

"Believe it," he told him. "In a few years time we're going against the Wraith hot and heavy on the ground while the Ancestors kick their butt in space."

"Looks like I came just in time," Kiryk said.

Ronon grabbed him by the shoulder and led him away from the raw recruits. "Welcome to the party."


	2. Chapter 2

Weir, Ryan Stevenson, Matt Stevenson, Daniel, and Sheppard sat around the circumference of the briefing room tables as they viewed the video playback from the _Tria_.

The ship was moving through hyperspace for a few seconds, then reverted to realspace in the middle of nowhere. The prow of the ship was dark, with the only source of exterior illumination being the distant stars. There were no planets or objects of any kind within sight or within the sensor telemetry that was playing on a second adjacent hologram.

Suddenly a hyperspace window formed and a Traveler ship emerged a few hundred kilometers ahead. It was trailing a thin line of smoke and flew towards them with all haste. On the _Tria_'s telemetry readings the assembled group saw her shields go up and her weapons armed. Less than a minute later two large ships emerged from hyperspace in pursuit and immediately deployed fighters. A moment later they opened fire on the _Tria_ with their main guns as the Traveler ship took cover behind its ally.

Several golden energy blasts from the _Tria_ returned fire experimentally, but the alien ships' shields held. The _Tria_'s guns shifted to the approaching fighters while several dozen pesqua sprouted from the Ancient warship and flew towards the diverging warships, one of which was trying to slip around the port side of the _Tria_ to get a shot at the Traveler ship.

The Ancient weapons passed through the enemy's shields and took out their emitters. The protective energy fields dissipated as several more pesqua shot out and intercepted a few of the fighters that had gotten by. The _Tria_'s energy weapons then returned fire into the unshielded enemy craft.

The port ship began to show significant damage as the _Tria_'s shields deflected wave after wave of enemy fire. Two of the remaining fighters made a kamikaze run at the front of the ship. They impacted the shields, crunched, then bounced off incapacitated.

After thirty seconds of punishment the starboard enemy ship broke apart, spraying debris in all directions…including several pieces into its twin. Seemingly doomed to defeat, the port ship attempted to circumvent and ram the Traveler ship, but it proved too fast to catch, even injured as it was. Out of options, the dying enemy ship turned into the _Tria_, but its momentum was caught by the ship's tractor beam and slowed.

It did manage to bump into her shields, but they held as the now point blank fire coming from the _Tria_ ripped the enemy apart. Soon the battle was over, with a couple of pesqua mopping up the last of the fighters…then the holograms went dark.

"One of the fighters rammed the scout ship, boarded it, and killed several of the crew before they were taken down by successive hits from their standard side arms," Matt Stevenson said as he pulled up another hologram. This one was one of the dead alien bodies now present in Atlantis's med bay, which had become his chosen area of expertise.

He looked and sounded exactly like Ryan, except that Matt had altered his hair color to a deep red and lightened his skin a couple of shades with a few genetic modifications. Though it wasn't his cup of tea any more than it was Ryan's, Matt had elected to start rebuilding the medical division of their civilization, with Keller and Beckett being his primary assistant/students.

"I don't suppose any of you have seen this species before?" Ryan asked.

Daniel shook his head. "Nope."

"Me neither," Elizabeth said.

Ryan glanced at Sheppard. He did know something.

"I have," John said.

Weir frowned. "When?"

"Not when, but where…ish. These things attacked my team in a different reality, when we got stuck aboard the alternate _Daedalus_. They also took a poke at Atlantis…in the other reality."

Ryan searched his memory. He'd read through all of their mission reports.

"You saw these things in person?" Matt asked, beating him to it.

"Oh yeah," Sheppard said. "Killed three of them on board the ship…come to think of it, they got onboard the alternate _Daedalus_ the same way. Crashed one of their fighters into the hull."

"Do you recognize the technology?" Daniel asked the Stevensons.

"Not specifically," Ryan answered. "But it's nothing new to us."

"I'd hope not," Daniel said. "Never the less, they don't appear very friendly. Elizabeth, didn't you say something earlier about discovering a number of advanced civilizations in Pegasus?"

"Yes," she said, remembering back to her brief time as an 'ascended' replicator, "but this wasn't one of them."

"Larrin and Mike have been quietly making contact with those civilizations," Ryan told them. "Most of them are Human, with moderate level technology, but this…this is different. The analysis we did on the debris the _Tria_ brought back suggests a technological level slightly higher than that of the Wraith."

"Interesting," Daniel mewed.

Sheppard eyed him. "You wouldn't say that if you'd met them face to face."

Daniel shook his head. "I meant the fact that they appear to be hiding is interesting. It was only after the Travelers scanned their hidden base that they reacted…and then they pursued them across a quarter of the galaxy."

"Intent on destroying them," Sheppard argued.

"I'm not disagreeing," Daniel said. "I just think there's more going on here than meets the eye."

"Point taken," Elizabeth said, "but the question remains…what are we going to do about it?"

"For the time being," Ryan said firmly, "that system is off limits. I've notified the rest of our fleet and installations to be on guard for both the ships and the species in question. I've also ordered our scout ships to keep clear of the general vicinity for the time being. We can update the survey on those worlds after we exhaust the rest of the list."

Ryan pointed at Sheppard. "I'm sending the _Apollo_ back to that planet on a stealth reconnaissance run. I want you to go with Mike, given that you're the only one that's had previous experience with this enemy."

"Sure," Sheppard said.

"Anything else?" Ryan asked.

"I know this is probably a stupid thing to say," Daniel piped up. "But are we 100% sure they're hostile? I mean, yes, they attacked our people, but are you really willing to write it off that easily?"

Sheppard turned in his seat to face Daniel on his left. "What does it take with you? They killed several of the Traveler's crew. What more do you need?"

"I'm just trying to point out that we can't assume what happens in an alternate reality will be the same in this reality. Trust me, I've had some experience with these things."

"You have a small point, Daniel," Ryan said evenly. "However, attacking and killing our people can't be overlooked. We're going to settle up with them, one way or another. But right now, this operation is in data collection mode."

"So, this couldn't possibly be a misunderstanding?" Daniel questioned, unsure of why Ryan was jumping to conclusions.

"A lesson in diplomacy, Daniel," Stevenson said, a bit tongue in cheek. "If someone's initial reaction in a misunderstanding is to kill you, then they're probably not going to be amicable even after the misunderstanding is sorted out. If they fire on someone for encroaching on their territory, then they're a menace that has to be dealt with. If they're trying to protect their anonymity by destroying our scout ship, same scenario."

"Fair enough," Daniel argued, "but since we know where they are, why not at least try and open up a line of communication?"

Sheppard rolled his eyes.

"That's an option," Ryan said evenly, "but not a foregone conclusion. Data first, then we'll decide how to respond."

Daniel nodded, seeming to accept that.

"Anything else?" Ryan asked.

There wasn't, so they ended the briefing. The five of them left to return to their separate duties, but Ryan continued his conversation with Matt as the two of them headed off into different parts of the city.

"_Keep working on the neural components_," Ryan told him. "_There's something familiar about them."_

"_I know_," Matt replied, "_but I can't quite put my finger on it yet_."

"_I'm going back over the debris again. I keep getting the feeling we've seen these guys before_."

"_Same here_," Matt said, breaking their link. He hopped into a nearby transporter and traveled back to the med bay where he joined Beckett as he slowly dissected one of the bodies.

"See here," he said, pointing at a particular nerve cluster in the corpse, giving Carson a few pointers. "You need to follow the tendrils into the implants and disconnect them inside…"

* * *

Back in Avalona, the gate center sat quietly as an incoming wormhole formed in the yellow gate. A few moments later a figure dressed in a large overrobe stepped through, his face obscured by the shadows of the hood. The facility lit up in response to his presence while he casually walked across to the opening in the far wall that led up to the control room.

Familiar with the layout of the facility and the control boards, the man pulled up an activity log for the time since he'd last visited. A plethora of data poured forth and the man smiled beneath his hood.

"_At last_," he said to himself. Further down the list of activity he noted the manufacture of two new gates. He pulled up the sensor data from the timestamp on the construction of the gates and noted the design of ship used to transport them.

"_The _Tria," he noted with some amusement. "_And here I thought you'd been destroyed_."

He switched functions and displayed the map of the Ancient galaxies and their interconnected gates. Accessing computer memory, he pulled a search of recent intergalactic connections, displaying both their points of origin and their destinations.

Starting with the original connection to Pegasus that Stevenson had made after his escape from the SGC, the man watched as he had moved from galaxy to galaxy on a regular basis. He correlated the end point of most of these connections and raised an eyebrow. Atlantis had been moved to a location he hadn't expected…twice. The last fairly recently.

"_You've done well, Ryan. Better than I'd hoped. But what about the big pieces of the puzzle?_" he said, ordering a different search. In response a long, thin line appeared from Pegasus and stretched off the map. When he rescaled it to see its termination point he smiled unguardedly.

"_So you have made contact…very good_."

Again he entered a new search function, this time he frowned at the results. "_That's not right_," he said, seeing a plethora of 'dead' gates in Vela. He remote dialed one of them and brought up a visual from the other side. It showed nothing but dense vegetation.

He shut it down and dialed another, and another, and another until he came to one rubble strewn landscape, perfectly preserved due to the lack of any atmosphere what so ever.

The man dipped his head and sighed. "_We needed them…_"

He spent another hour going through a variety of searches, gleaming what data he could from the traffic logs. In the end he was satisfied, and a bit eager to get underway, but first there were a few things he had to attend to. He gated back to somewhere in Avalona through the red gate and disappeared from the gate center's sensors. The lights shut off automatically and the facility powered back down.


	3. Chapter 3

The _Apollo_ exited hyperspace outside the enemy star system to hide their hyperspace window from the enemy's sensors then proceeded back to the planet in question under cloak.

"Nothing," Sheppard commented once they'd made orbit. "Even the debris is gone."

"According to the report, there wasn't much to clean up," Mike said in the captain's chair.

"Still, I'd think there would be something," Sheppard said as a technician helped him with the sensors at a back station. "There's nothing up here…space around the planet is completely clean."

"That's the way it should look," Mike told him, bringing the _Apollo_ down into a lower orbit, but still keeping it above the atmosphere. "No inhabitation means no space junk."

"Still," Sheppard argued, "I'd at least expect a few rocks."

"No moons and no asteroids near the orbital track of the planet makes that unlikely. If they're intent on keeping their existence a secret, they're doing a good job of covering their tracks. The planet and orbit looks pristine."

"Except for those mountains," Sheppard pointed out as they came into view. "Kind of obvious isn't it?"

"If we could use our active sensors I'd show you how wrong you are," Mike said good-naturedly. "The Travelers detected both a stealth system masking the underground structures and a false signature representing tectonic activity across the planet creating topography at this location. I agree it is a bit visually obtrusive, but anyone who cares to take a closer look will find all the appropriate data backing it up."

"So why didn't it work?"

"Ryan upgraded the scout ships with Alterran sensors."

"Ok, so what are we going to do now if we can't uncloak to use our sensors?"

Mike smiled. "Remember on the way in we dropped several cloaked sensor buoys?"

"I still can't get past the contradiction of _cloaked_…_sensor_ buoys," Sheppard said. "But yeah, I do."

"Watch," Mike said, sending a signal.

On the _Apollo_'s passive sensors a small blip appeared in high orbit and began to descend to the planet's surface.

"I thought this mission was stealth recon?" Sheppard asked, amused.

"We're still cloaked," Mike argued.

"Think they'll take the bait?"

"Either way we'll gain something useful."

"How?"

"It's going to crash into those ridges."

Sheppard smiled and clapped Mike on the arm. "I like your style…and the hair."

The blue haired Stevenson smiled as a number of fighters began to rise from the surface to intercept the probe. The recorders on the _Apollo_ immediately tagged their surface coordinates and zoomed in on those locations. Nothing was visible aside from pristine, grass-covered slopes.

Mike pressed another button and the probe exploded before the fighters could get to it. Nothing but tiny fragments was left for them to study, as had been planned.

"Come on, there's nothing here," Mike said under his breath. After a short delay the fighters agreed with his assessment and began to return to ground.

"Here we go," Mike said, enlarging the holograms of the previously tagged sites. When the fighters got to them they appeared to ram directly into the hillsides…then disappeared.

"Concealed hangar bays or tunnels," Mike guessed. "Probably holographic emitters covering the entrances."

"Sounds awful advanced for a bunch of brutes," Sheppard said offhand.

Mike frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the ones we fought on the alternate _Daedalus_ didn't act very intelligent…determined as hell, but all the growling and snarling and pointed teeth didn't exactly strike me as the computer programmer type."

"Hmmn, you may have a point there."

Sheppard raised an eyebrow. "I do?"

"Maybe," Mike cautioned. "Some species have different castes for different tasks…such as the Wraith. Could be this species does too."

"I don't know. Brutes piloting ships?"

"That thought had occurred to me," Mike admitted. "It does leave a lot of questions hanging."

"So what now?"

"Now we try and find where their large ships are hiding," Mike said, retrieving the sensor data from the Traveler ship, which he had on file. "Judging from the entry vectors of their hyperspace windows it looks like they originated from several locations. We're going to pick one and follow it up for a couple of light years. See if we can get lucky."

"You know, you're a lot easier to talk to than the other Stevensons," Sheppard said. "Why is that?"

Mike turned to look at him, smiling. "I'm a space monkey like you. If I had my choice I'd be in the pilot's seat of a small combat ship, pitting my skills against the enemy directly. I'm not too big on the 'sit behind the scenes pulling the strings' positions."

"I know what you mean," Sheppard said, visualizing Elizabeth's position. "But aren't you all supposed to be the same? I mean, you _are_ clones."

"Up here," Mike said, pointing at his head. "But not here," he said, thumbing his chest. "Have you ever known any identical twins?"

"A few."

"Were they the same? Personality wise?"

"All but one pair…they were polar opposites. Even looked different too."

"The body changes to match the person inside," Mike told him. "By the way, don't ever let someone convince you to swap bodies. They can do a lot of damage."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sheppard said suspiciously. "Is that what Alterrans do at parties?"

Mike laughed. "No. We don't have parties."

Sheppard raised an eyebrow. "No parties?"

"Let's just say we're workaholics," he said as the _Apollo_ slowly arced up out of orbit.

* * *

A set of rings activated in a subsurface structure beneath a benign rural world on the red gate network, depositing the robed man back in his personal lair. He walked over to a nearby computer terminal and began locking it down beneath a plethora of security codes.

Next, he shut down the small facility's power generator. Backup lighting kicked on, illuminating the spartan chambers in a dull blue glow. The man retrieved several small crystals from a wall niche and walked back to the rings, where he departed. Once the rings settled the backup lights ceased as well. The facility where he had spent many of his long years now lay dormant. He didn't expect that he'd ever have need to return there again.

* * *

On Dakara a ceremony was being held, commissioning the first three H'tel motherships. Thousands of Jaffa stood in attendance as the ships took off from their berths one by one and headed out amongst the stars. Now that the Jaffa had the ability to defend themselves, with both from their ground-based weaponry and the ships in orbit, they could begin to expand beyond Dakara and incorporate other Jaffa worlds into the System Lords' domain.

This, Bra'tac expected, would draw the ire of many within the crumbling Jaffa Nation, but now that they had the basis of a proper fleet the others would have no viable choice but to accept their acquisitions, the first of which would be Chulak.

Bra'tac's history with the planet and the willingness of so many of its inhabitants to join him on Dakara made it the obvious first choice. Some, he knew, would not welcome the annexation of their world into his empire, but the vast majority would. After all, a world was not an individual entity whom he could ask for permission. Chulak, like all others in coming days, would be given the opportunity of joining Bra'tac's forces. If the vast majority of the inhabitants chose to join, he would be willing to tolerate a small number of malcontents.

However, if the planet was split or opposed to joining, he had decided not to press the issue. Unity was the underlying principle that he was building his Jaffa Empire on, and forced submission would undermine his long term efforts. Only those planets wanting to join…and several had already petitioned him to do just that…would be incorporated into the empire. Those that did not would be dealt with amicably, hopefully becoming friendly neighbors.

Bra'tac had no notions of engaging in a Jaffa civil war, and was determined to preserve as much of their current strength as possible while adding his Alterran-inspired infrastructure at a relaxed, methodical pace.

To that end, one of the three H'tel was being dispatched to Chulak with an army of engineering replicators, a few thousand loyal Jaffa, and one Paul Stevenson who had recently arrived to assist Bra'tac as Master Builder. Together they would begin incorporating and transforming Chulak into a second base of operations and homeworld for the half million Jaffa that had already flocked to his cause. Dakara's infrastructure was already being pressed to sustain them all, despite the prolific building capability of Stevenson's replicators.

The other two H'tel would remain in orbit as sentinels safeguarding the home of the 1st System Lord as well as serving as command and control platforms for the small fleet of Ha'tak's and Al'kesh that had trickled in over the past two years. Twice again larger than a standard Ha'tak, yet stretched laterally so that they were still capable of moving through the Alterran supergates if needed, the newly minted vessels still had the angular lines of the infamous pyramid design, but there was a subtle, smoother aesthetics built in that belied their Ancient technology.

Bra'tac had designed the vessels to iconically draw on both the history of the Jaffa and their future as servants of the Alterra…and based on the reactions of the throngs assembled in celebration around the Dakara shipyard he had succeeded spectacularly.

One thing that Bra'tac lacked, however, was an acceptable First Prime. He had several candidates that would be suitable in the old roll, but between himself and Ryan Stevenson, they had both agreed that any First Prime would be on a fast track to becoming an Alterra and a subsequent addition to the System Lords. As it was, none of Bra'tac's men measured up in that regard…and the one individual on his mind wanted nothing to do with his mission. He hoped in time that would change, but for the moment he would have to do without unless another suitable individual rose to notice.

* * *

"What do you have?" Ryan asked Nordman as he walked up onto the gate room platform.

"A message for you," she said, pulling up the document from the long range 'fax' machine. "It's code-locked."

Ryan frowned. "Let me see."

As he dug through the prompts for the code sequence Ana saw his eyes widen.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"No," Ryan said as he input the archaic sequence and the message unlocked. Inside was simply a set of gate coordinates. "Change of plans. Tell Lorne and Cadman their transformations are going to have to wait. I don't know how long I'll be gone."

Ana looked concerned. "What is it?"

Ryan shook his head slowly. "I don't know," he said absentmindedly as he dialed the 9 chevron address. He input the proper code prompt into the restricted dialing device warily, wondering what this was all about.

The DHD accepted the code and dialed the coordinates in Ida on the green gate network. Ryan mentally reviewed the intel data from the other side as he walked down the stairs. Conditions stable. No detectable threats.

"Do you want backup?" Nordman asked over the railing.

"I have to do this alone," he explained, mentally turning on his personal shield emitters held in his forearm jewelry. He let out a small sigh and stepped through the event horizon.

He emerged into the ruins of an Alterran mining planet, one that he hadn't tried to refurbish yet. The eons had beaten the crap out of the place, so much so that none of the equipment worked. The previous structures had been reduced to little more than monoliths strewn about the landscape.

"_Hello, Ryan_," a 'voice' said from ahead of him telepathically. The robed man stepped into view a moment later. "_Thank you for coming. I've been awaiting this day for quite some time_."

"_You've got some explaining to do_," Ryan challenged, also telepathically. "_That code for starters, and how you accessed this network_."

"_My apologies, where are my manners_." He pulled off his hood, revealing trim, yet slightly chaotic hair along with a pleasant demeanor. "_My name is Janus_..."


	4. Chapter 4

"_My name is Janus. I was one of the Lanteans that survived the war against the Wraith and evacuated from Atlantis back to Earth_."

Stevenson recognized the name. "_The Attero device_."

Janus's demeanor slackened and he nodded regretfully. "_Unfortunately yes, that was my doing. I take it you've been reviewing our history?_"

"_I have. But the Lanteans were never given access to the other gate networks…nor the code you used. And while it's possible that a Lantean could survive 10,000 years, records indicated that few did_."

Janus's smile returned. "_A sharp mind requires a fit body_."

Stevenson nodded slightly in deference.

"_However, I must point out that I am actually 12,000 years old, give or take. Earth years, of course. I assume the Alterra here still use the same?_"

"_Avalon standard, yes_," Stevenson answered, his eyes narrowing. "_What do you mean_ here_?_"

Janus sighed. "_It's a long story, and best I begin at the beginning. Before I do, though, let's move to some place more private_."

Stevenson glanced around. "_I was under the impression that this planet was unoccupied?_"

Janus pulled two wristbands out of a pocket in his overflowing robe and attached one to his wrist. He tossed the other to Stevenson.

Ryan telekinetically caught it a meter in front of him and looked it over closely. "_What is it?_"

Janus didn't say anything. Instead, he pressed the small jewel-like button and disappeared in a wash of light.

Frowning, Stevenson pulled on the wristband and did likewise. Suddenly the view around them shifted in spectrum…and Ryan realized they had transitioned to another dimension.

"_There_," Janus said, satisfied. "_Now we can talk without the Ascended Empire knowing_."

Stevenson's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with suspicion. "_Explain_."

"_I know you've used the Repository of Knowledge and possess the collective knowledge of the Alterra_," Janus began slowly. "_Do you recall the temporal experiments during the time of the plague?_"

"_Yes_," Ryan said, both of them still using telepathy as they stood in the center of the blue-hued ruins. "_We attempted to create a time travel device so that we could go back to the beginning of the plague and discover its source. We were never able to make it work_."

"_No, they didn't_," Janus echoed, "_but the files on that attempt were stored in Atlantis's database. I used them to perfect the technology in hopes of returning to the period prior to the Wraith invasion and preventing their takeover of Pegasus. I had also considered traveling all the way back to before the plague killed the Alterra and assisting them…except I wasn't sure what would happen to me if the Alterra survived, because then there would have been no need to create the Lanteans._"

"_You made it work?_" Stevenson asked disbelievingly.

Janus smiled awkwardly. "_I thought I had. In retrospect I was incredibly naïve…and, I'll admit, a bit arrogant. I incorporated my designs into a navicula porta, but was unable to test them due to the council's reluctance to pursue any temporal research due to such causality paradoxes that I mentioned. I was about to forego my research and pursue other projects after we returned to Earth, but just before the evacuation happened my time machine appeared in orbit and was shot down by the Wraith besieging the city_."

Stevenson thought back through the mission reports he'd read. "_Weir_."

Janus smiled again. "_Quite right. She was the only survivor, and after a bit of deceit on my part to the council I arranged for her to remain behind and insure the city survived until her expedition from Earth could reclaim it. Might I ask…is she still alive?_"

"_No_," Stevenson told him. "_The one you speak of expired shortly after her removal from stasis. Her counterpart from this timeline is alive though_."

Janus nodded, then pushed aside thoughts of the past. "_Both time devices were destroyed by the council, but given the 'success' I witnessed I didn't let the matter drop. After we returned to Earth we didn't remain together for long. The council dissolved and we all went our separate ways, though we did try and keep track of each other's whereabouts_."

"_Given the freedom I had, and using technology brought back to Earth from Atlantis, I rebuilt my time device and began experimenting with short jumps…nothing that would cause any catastrophic paradoxes, but enough to begin collecting data. After a number of years I had concluded that when I made a jump that I and everything else contained within the navicula porta was immune from causality paradoxes. That should have been a warning sign…but I didn't pick up on it._"

"_Let me guess_," Stevenson said, putting the pieces together. He already had the files from the Alterran experiment in memory. "_You disregarded the protocols we established, wondering why we had overlooked certain avenues of research_."

"_Indeed_," Janus said, looking even more embarrassed. "_As you already probably know, I wasn't actually traveling through time…_"

"_You were traveling to alternate realities_," Stevenson finished.

"_Not traveling_," Janus said, his scientific demeanor back. "_I was creating new ones with each jump_."

That revelation caused an eyebrow to raise on the Alterra. "_Created?_"

Janus nodded. "_I know you didn't do research into this area for several reasons, and as you suspected there were unforeseen consequences. When I traveled back to before the Wraith invasion, I actually caused the original timeline to split from that point, with the new branch running parallel to the original…only that the new timeline's dates didn't match up with the original. The time I jumped to synced up with the time I had left_."

"_So the new branch aligned with your personal temporal progression_," Stevenson said, beginning to understand.

"_Yes, that's why I mistakenly believed I was time traveling. I was able to relive past events…and even alter them, but that's because I wasn't actually in the original timeline. I was in a duplicate. It took me several hundred years and thousands of jumps before I realized my mistake…by which point I was thoroughly lost_."

"_You didn't know how to transition between existing timelines_," Stevenson guessed.

"_No_," Janus said, shaking his head. "_I couldn't. At least, not for a while. Eventually I traveled back, creating a new timeline, and warned the original Alterra of the plague and asked for their assistance. They helped me construct a device to move from one reality to another and told me of other races that had done the same…some with disastrous results_."

"_The quantum mirrors_," Stevenson said offhand.

"_The what?_" Janus asked.

"_A few years ago the Humans on Avalon discovered an artifact that they dubbed a 'quantum mirror.' They never knew anything about it, except that it allowed them to transition between alternate realities. I know that it came from a species called the Vrattikel that sought to set up an Empire across realities…but they never perfected the technology. Some of their people died from incompatibility issues when they encountered their duplicates_."

"_That's because the technology didn't completely separate them from their original realities_," Janus explained. "_The Alterra and I discovered this flaw quite early and it took a lot of work to eliminate it. A clean transition between realities has no setbacks, but there are a lot of ways for things to go wrong with it. I don't believe any other species that they knew of had successfully created a similar technology_."

"_None that I know of_," Stevenson told him.

"_Well, after we'd perfected the technology we went our separate ways. They began preparing for the plague and I started randomly searching through the realities trying to find my way back home. It was random transitioning for a long time, during which I realized that there must have been other timeline splitting going on besides my own, for there were alternate realities so bizarre that they couldn't possibly be a result of my jumps. It occurred to me that these timeline splits could result from any point in the universe…_"

"_Alternate realities aren't natural_," Stevenson speculated. "_They're a result of time travel experiments._"

Janus nodded. "_So I began to realize_."

"_Interesting_," Stevenson mewed. "_Please continue_."

"_My first priority was to develop some sort of navigational system to track my movements between realities. This proved somewhat difficult, but with time I managed to create a system that would mark the 'location' of each reality I had been in. With this new technology I began transitioning a lot, building up a database of timelines. When I had gathered several thousand I began research towards a sensor package that could pinpoint other realities that I hadn't been to yet. Many years later I succeeded, then I began to unravel the interconnected nature of the timelines_."

"_You plotted the diversion points?_"

"_Yes, and once I was able to do that I was able to start compiling a database to use as a road map. In time I was able to find my original reality again, but not before discovering an impossible chain of events in several timelines. All of a sudden the Alterra returned after being dead for millions of years. I did some checking and discovered you…or rather, your duplicates_."

"_And?_"

"_We were never told about the Repositories_," Janus said, half complaining. "_We didn't realize the Alterra had any plans outside of Pegasus until we evacuated to Earth and found the primitive populations there_."

"_If you knew there were others out there_," Stevenson explained, "_you might have considered breaking quarantine to make contact with them. Pegasus was an untouched galaxy, and it was hoped that you wouldn't contract the plague there, hence the separate frequency for your gates to keep you isolated_."

"_Yes, I know, and it was a prudent measure, but still it felt like we were left out of the loop_."

Stevenson scoffed at that. "_You were given Atlantis and a developmental advantage over the other seed species. You had a chance to rebuild our civilization directly, then you blew it when the Wraith kicked your butts_."

"_Normally I'd be inclined to argue the strength of the Wraith in our defense, but then I've seen how easily you defeated them in other realities…so I can't disagree. We did screw up, in many ways. I'm glad the Alterra had a backup plan. It means our failure wasn't the end of their hopes_."

"_Actually, _you_ were the backup plan. The Repository was the primary_."

Janus frowned. "_Really…must have been an unanticipated variation between realities._"

"_You couldn't have gained access to our codes by mere observation_," Stevenson said, getting back to their previous point. "_Someone had to give it to you_."

"_Quite right_," Janus noted. "_You did_."

"_I told you to use the Repository?_" Stevenson challenged. "_I know you are Alterra, and while I can't read your mind I _can_ feel the difference in you. You're no Lantean_."

Janus nodded slowly. "_You're getting ahead of me. When I discovered the rebirth of the Alterra I investigated. I was curious how it would play out, so I made another time jump, creating an alternate reality from the distant future, essentially pulling it back in sync with the present. I could then transition back into the reality I had been in while knowing the 'future,' though now that the timeline had split there was no guarantee that events would play out the same way_."

"_Something went wrong…_" Stevenson guessed.

Janus stared at him for a moment. "_When I went a thousand years into the future I found a large and vibrant society. I decided to take it a bit further and went forward a million years…and they were all gone. I back tracked to the point where they disappeared, creating more alternate realities as I did…and discovered that they were fighting a war beyond measure. When they lost they were completely annihilated. No contingency plan. No backup. The survivors were hunted down and eradicated. The Alterra and all their allies were erased from the universe_."

Ryan's jaw clenched with his teeth grinding together. "_Go on_."

"_I went back to the first reality I had met you in. Several years had passed and you were just getting your footing. I told you what I had discovered and you confided in me your about your secret mission against the Ascended Empire_."

"_That explains these_," Stevenson said, holding up the wrist band.

Janus nodded. "_My mind is shielded against them, as yours is, but I didn't want to take the chance of them being able to intercept our telepathy_."

"_Shielded how?_"

"_If you'll bear with me…_" Janus implored. "_Knowing the secret with which you'd been entrusted I began exploring the timelines, both those that I created and existing ones. Through them all one constant remained…you lost. Badly. Most of the timelines you didn't exist in, but the ones where you did emerge and began to rebuild the Alterra you were eventually drawn into a war to counter the threat they posed. You started the war each time…and each time you failed_."

"_How?_"

Janus wavered. "_It's complicated. Needless to say, I told your duplicate all this and he was as concerned as you are now. I also traveled back to my original timeline, but it was running 7,000 years behind. I had been lost in the alternate realities for 3,000 years and no matter how many transitions I made, no matter how many alternate realities I created, all existing timelines progressed one year at a time. If I jumped forward 7,000 years in my original timeline I'd end up creating an alternate, branched off from that point_."

"_Why not put yourself into stasis or a time dilation field?_"

"_I considered that, but both would leave me vulnerable to outside influence. I could be killed within either device if someone tampered with it from the outside. So, instead of waiting and hoping for you to arise in my original timeline I chose to return to the alternate reality and assist you there_."

"_Still no joy?_"

"_We thought we had a handle on the problem. It took us 5,000 years to get to a point where we were comfortable with our readiness…then we challenged the Ascended Empire. It worked…but then they blindsided us. We fought a 500 year war, gradually losing ground. Towards the end you told me to leave, take what I had learned, and use it in another reality to defeat them_."

"_I died?_" Stevenson asked.

"_I don't know. We had a failsafe plan, which he could have used, but we still retained three galaxies at the time and he wasn't willing to quit, but he couldn't see any route to victory. So I left, but I was still 1500 years shy of your emergency in my original timeline…if you emerged at all. So instead of traveling back there, I created an alternate timeline starting from just before we started the war against the Ascended Empire. I told you and my alternate version everything that had happened and left them to try and find a solution_."

"_Then you went forward again_," Stevenson guessed.

"_I did, which created another alternate reality. The alterations they'd made bought them more time, and the war dragged out longer, but in the end they still lost. So I tried again, and again, and again. Every time, every change, every alteration failed. At last I argued with you not to challenge them…to wait it out. I went forward again and discovered that it didn't matter. Several hundred thousand years later they attacked you, with the same outcome. They will not tolerate the Alterra…we're too advanced. If we don't stop them, they will stop us eventually_."

"_You said 'us.'_"

"_In the first attempt, when I spent 5,000 years helping you rebuild, you told me to use the Repository, but not to accept the secondary programming. I don't know if I listened or failed the tests, either way I was transformed but not the way you were. After Sheppard died from the attempt you didn't want anyone else trying_."

"_Sheppard?_" Stevenson asked.

"_You thought he could handle the stress, and he did pass the Repository's tests…but the constant flux was too much for him. After a few years it spiraled out of control and killed him. That's why you didn't want anyone else to attempt the accelerated advancement_."

Stevenson's eyes narrowed. "_He should have partially stabilized before that_."

Janus tilted his head warily. "_It gets worse_," he warned. "_You progress through a series of developmental stages. You told me that you barely survived some of them. You didn't know that when you had Sheppard try_."

"_How then is your mind shielded?_" Stevenson asked. "_That should have been in the secondary programming_."

"_You did it, later on when you learned how. You didn't want the Ascended Empire knowing what I knew…or what we had planned. And I got rather tired of working and living in an alternate dimensional facility to keep them from prying_."

"_So, how much longer do you have until you catch up with me in your original timeline?_"

Janus smiled wryly. "_My reality hopping, time traveling days are over. This _is_ my original timeline and I'm here to help you find a way to stop the Ascended Empire_."


	5. Chapter 5

Mike whistled appreciatively while Sheppard's jaw hung open. "That's an impressive sight."

"Yes it is," Mike echoed. The view out the _Apollo_'s forward window was telling. Off in the distance there was a large 'fork' with five prongs…and on each prong were docked ships, the same make and model as the large enemy ships the _Tria_ had destroyed.

"Ok," Sheppard said slowly, counting ships. "What do we do about it?"

"Report back what we've found."

"I mean after that," Sheppard said. He'd counted 78 on the nearest prong, and the others were equally thick with ships.

"I don't know," Mike said honestly. "Our tech is superior to theirs, but numbers do create an advantage. The Columnars were designed to counter a threat such as this, but as of now we only have one operational, and it's already deployed to Dracona."

"Designed how?" Sheppard said. "I know they can kick the crap out of about anything, but…"

"Strong shields designed to weather a large amount of damage in a short span of time coupled with a large number of weapon systems that can be used to attack multiple targets at once. Why else did you think it had so many plasma cannons and four Lox generators?"

"Don't you need a lot of gunners for that?" he said, half dodging the question.

"Yes, you do. And currently we don't have the numbers to field full crews even if we had the ships ready."

"If you don't mind me asking…why not just make more clones?"

Mike turned his attention away from the enemy space station and looked at Sheppard. "With so few Alterra, any clones produced will make up a disproportionate percentage of the population. My group was created out of need, but Ryan didn't do so lightly. I doubt you'll see any more of us. The original idea was to convert trustworthy people into Alterra, but with clones you're getting a newbie…and there's a chance you might get someone…unworthy out of the process, despite the memories and knowledge granted to them."

"By unworthy you mean…an evil Alterra?" Sheppard asked, not liking his own question.

"A small possibility," Mike admitted, "but given what we know, even one could cause quite a lot of damage."

"I can image," Sheppard said, then hesitated. "Then again, I probably can't."

"Once we get a small fleet of Columnars built, they'll have an Alterran captain and a crew made up of Lanteans and Humans. Replicators wouldn't do any better than the ship's computer which, to be fair, can handle the weaponry adequately given clear operational orders. It's when things get fuzzy that machines can't be trusted."

"Still," Sheppard argued. "A million of the combat drones the _Apollo_ has, launched on their own against a fleet like that has got to be effective."

"I never said self-guided machines weren't effective," Mike clarified. "They just don't have the…accuracy of target acquisition and troubleshooting capabilities that the Alterra require. You give these drones and other automated attack craft to a commander who doesn't care about being sloppy so long as the mission is achieved and such machines will be quite effective."

"But that's not how Alterra fight, I take it?" Sheppard asked.

"No…we don't make sacrifices of personnel or planets. If we don't have an accurate shot, we don't take one. Friendly fire is abhorrent."

"No argument there," Sheppard said quickly, "but doesn't that leave you in a strategic disadvantage?"

"Maybe for rookies," Mike said, glancing out the viewport, "but the more skilled you become in warfare, the more options open up to you. We can overcome such strategies from our enemies without having to sink to their level, but such things take careful planning and years of preparation. It's not something we can throw together on a whim."

"Like ordering your people on suicide missions carrying explosives?"

Mike's eyes narrowed. "Darkside tactics like that do have their advantages in combat, and based on what we've seen from this race," he said, motioning out the window, "I suspect they operate much the same."

"Darkside, huh?" Sheppard asked, noting the Star Wars reference.

"That's the closest English term I know," he said as the _Apollo_ circled around the 'fork' and saw the thicker backside 'handle.' "Looks like this is also a shipyard," he said as several inset bays showed partially constructed duplicates of the ships docked on the prongs.

"I don't suppose this is their only station?" Sheppard asked rhetorically.

"Based on the entry vectors of their ships, I'd say we're looking at at _least_ four locations in total."

Sheppard nodded. "How long until the Columnars are finished?"

"Another year," Mike said regretfully.

"Let's not poke the bee hive until then, ok?" Sheppard pleaded.

"You read my mind," Mike half joked as he maneuvered the _Apollo_ away from the enemy installation. "We've seen enough. Let's get this intel back to Atlantis. We've got some rethinking to do before we start laying into the Wraith."

* * *

"Whoever they are," Mike reported to the others in the conference room, "they mean business. Their tech may not be as advanced as ours, but it's still effective. Analysis of the _Tria_ battle data suggests a five to one ratio. Their primary weapons are potent, and can overload our shields if they can sit and pour fire into them."

"But if we can fire pesqua through their shields…" Elizabeth pointed out.

"We can't count on that always being the case," Ryan told her. "Shield dynamics can be altered to resist the pesqua, which we can then reattune to get through again. If your enemy knows what they're doing, and possesses sufficient technology, they can render the pesqua's shield penetrating capabilities moot."

"Janus," Sheppard spoke up. "You know anything about these guys?"

The former Lantean exchanged glances with Ryan, then hesitantly answered. "I have encountered them in several realities, but as I said before, there's no guarantee that events in this timeline will play out the same as the others. And to tell you the truth, I've made several mistakes in the past when I anticipated something to be the same and it turned out not to be the case, and it usually is something you wouldn't expect."

"Understood," Ryan told him. "We'll make sure to verify anything you tell us before we act on it, but right now we're in the dark and any light you could shed on the situation would be useful."

"Very well," Janus relented. They'd just been through a two hour debriefing session as Janus explained his reappearance and answered a plethora of questions…minus the sensitive information, of course. Even now one of the ascended could be eavesdropping on their conversation. "I'll start with what I know from my experiences in this reality."

Sheppard raised his eyebrows. "The Lanteans ran into them?"

"Not exactly, but there are some things you need to know first. When the original Lanteans settled in this galaxy, they did so through several means. Many planets were colonized with various levels of development, but all planets were grouped together into one of several prefectures. Each one served as a supply and support network centered on a copy of Atlantis."

Sheppard perked up. "I think we found one of those..."

Janus glanced to Ryan.

"Agartha," Stevenson told him.

Janus frowned. "It was evacuated and destroyed early in the war."

"Beat up, yes," Sheppard told him. "Destroyed, no. It still had a little power left and a few drones, which the locals were using to fight off culling raids."

"How were they firing the drones?" Janus asked.

Sheppard shrugged. "The royal family possessed the gene."

"That's disturbing," Janus said regretfully. "The evacuees must have deceived the council, hoping that the Wraith would also believe the city destroyed. The only way the native population could have gained the activation gene was for one or more of the survivors to have interbred with them, which suggests only a handful remained behind. Possibly a single individual."

Elizabeth frowned. "Was that sort of thing common back then…I mean the Lanteans deceiving each other?"

Janus sighed. "It wasn't common, but it wasn't unheard of either, which actually ties in with what I was going to tell you. Another of the city/ships, name Abla Longa, was home to a man by the name of Remus. He rose to prominence in the city, then staged a peaceful revolt, seizing power for himself and his supporters. The council refused to take any sort of military action to resolve the situation and merely exiled those on Alba Longa from the rest of Lantean society."

"There was an exchange of personnel," Janus continued. "Those that had not taken part in the overthrow left Alba Longa for other worlds, while those that favored Remus and his philosophy migrated to the city from across Pegasus. The prefecture that Alba Longa serviced was split and annexed by other adjacent prefectures…isolating the dissidents."

Daniel raised a hand for him to stop. "What sort of philosophy?"

"Remus believed in unfettered research, and didn't hold to many of the restrictions placed on Lantean scientists. No line of scientific inquiry was off limits, in his opinion, regardless of the moral implications. An acquaintance of mine in the scientific community named Romulus was of a lesser, yet similar mind and left Atlantis to join him. He wasn't nearly as extreme in his beliefs, but he too felt…restrained. After he left, I had no contact with him due to the communications blackouts imposed by their exile until the war with the Wraith began. Despite the misgivings between us, Alba Longa fought alongside the rest of the Lanteans in the war. When it eventually fell, Romulus returned to Atlantis with a number of other evacuees. He was one of the few that survived to war's end and evacuated back to Earth."

"Once on Earth, he established the beginnings of what eventually became the Roman Empire, but then he vanished and we knew nothing of what happened to him. That is the last information I have from this timeline."

"Hold on a minute," Sheppard interrupted. "If the Wraith couldn't destroy Atlantis, how did they destroy the copies?"

"A mixture of arrogance and naivety," Janus answered. "The architecture was copied, then some alterations were made based on our needs. However, the advanced weaponry that the Alterra constructed on Atlantis was deemed unnecessary and not included in the copies. Even the old style Alterran warships were redesigned for 'peaceful' purposes and eventually evolved into the _Aurora_-class vessels, one of which you still possess."

"By peaceful you mean pacifists?" Sheppard asked with a touch of disdain.

"Nearly," Janus admitted. "We did of course equip the cities and ships with some basic weapons, usually the pesqua due to their shield penetrating capabilities, but anything else was looked at as almost…barbaric."

"Figures," Sheppard complained.

"When the Wraith attacked us using ships designed to fight without shields it took away the pesqua's advantage. Our small supply of pesqua were quickly expended, leaving our ships and cities with no ability to counterattack. Their shields would hold up for a long time, but eventually the Wraith would overwhelm them. In this way they captured several of our ships with their potentia intact…which further complicated the problem."

"So we heard," Sheppard noted.

"We quickly redesigned our ships and cities with larger pesqua storage holds, assuming that in greater numbers they would be able to counteract the Wraith's armor advantage and destroy their ships…which they did. But the Wraith kept producing more and more vessels…their numbers negated our enlarged carry capacity and they began methodically encroaching into our territory. As you asked, they would attack one of our cities, lose a massive number of ships to our pesqua until our holds ran dry, then they would arrange their ships in orbit and pound our shields until they could overload them or drain the potentia powering them."

"Seeing our disadvantage we immediately began designing and producing energy based weaponry similar to what Atlantis was equipped with. We established a satellite defense network around Atlantis and two other cities. It slowed the Wraith down considerably, but couldn't stop them. Only Atlantis, with the original Alterra weaponry, could hold them at bay. We had scavenged as many potentia as we could from other installations and our production facilities before they were destroyed, so we never had a need for power in Atlantis. We sat there, besieged for many years trying to find a way to counter their numbers…but we never did. Eventually we gave up and left."

"I'm curious," Elizabeth spoke up. "Why didn't you take Atlantis back to Avalona? It is a flying city."

Janus hung his head. "When I said we gave up, I meant it holistically. The council abandoned the war and Pegasus entirely. They didn't even try to rebuild our civilization in another galaxy. Their spirit was broken. Most of them, honestly, returned to Earth to die, each in their chosen way."

Elizabeth hung her head for a moment. "That's sad."

"Yes it was," Janus agreed, "but some of us didn't give up. Several finally learned how to ascend…which brings me back to Romulus."

"He ascended?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know," Janus said cautiously. "Everything I'm going to tell you now is knowledge from alternate realities. The Romulus I knew…I can't tell you for certain what happened to him…only his alternates."

Daniel nodded.

"Romulus spent several years as one of the ascended, then retook corporeal form in Pegasus…where Remus and several survivors of Alba Longa were attempting to rebuild in secret, hidden from the Wraith. They didn't have much to work with, but most of them were scientists who then dedicated themselves to rediscovering the technological secrets they once possessed, absent any moral restrictions. Those bodies you have in the med bay are their handiwork."

Ryan and Mike's eyes widened, which surprised Weir, Daniel, and Sheppard more than Janus's revelation.

"As you're no doubt suspecting," Janus continued, addressing the other Alterra, "these creatures were engineered to fight the Wraith. They use them as expendable soldiers and designed them with a lifespan of only three years, after which they have to be replaced. They did this so that any losses against the Wraith would be next to meaningless, given that these troops had to be replaced anyway. Once they built up a sufficient supply base to be able to field and resupply an army of these creatures on a magnitude capable of challenging the Wraith they launch them against each other, letting attrition wear the Wraith down while they continued their production of these creatures endlessly."

"How long?" Ryan asked.

"If this reality proves similar to the others, another hundred years or so before they have sufficient, sustainable numbers…but it usually doesn't come to that. Immediately after we destroy the Wraith they emerge from hiding to attack us…with shields reconfigured to resist our pesqua," he added.

"Sons of bitches," Sheppard said under his breath.

"Are Romulus and Remus still alive?" Mike asked.

"Depends on the reality," Janus said. "In some they were, but they had to cheat to do it, using clone bodies to sustain themselves. Given their lack of technology, they suffered a significant diminishing return every time they transferred into a new body. It's also possible that Romulus ascended and descended to rejuvenate himself. Either way, there's a good chance they're still alive. If they're not, then their descendants are carrying out their plans in their stead."

Sheppard looked at Mike and nodded his understanding. "I take it these creatures are the product of the 'unworthy' ones?"

Mike tilted his head in consideration. "It would be far worst if they'd retained the Atlantis databanks, but yeah. Based on what Janus told us, these things are designed to be used in conjunction with darkside tactics."

Ryan raised an eyebrow at the term 'darkside' but let it pass.

"Great," Sheppard said, summing up Janus's speech pithily. "Evil Lanteans."


End file.
